Processing of telephone calls in the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in the United States is controlled by two entities: Local Exchange Carriers (LEC), and toll carriers or interexchange carriers (IXCs). LECs process calls to and from their local telephone subscribers, while IXCs process calls for callers who are dialing long distance. There are approximately 1,400 LECs, and 700 IXCs. The terms "LEC" and "IXC" are beginning to be replaced by the terms "AP" and "AC". "AP" means Access Providers, and is synonymous with "LEC". "AC" means Access Customers, and is synonymous with "IXC".
In recent years, additional telephone-delivered services are being provided by entities referred to as Information Providers (IP). The IP industry was born in 1980 when AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph Co.) and American Broadcasting Corporation established a telephone line to receive "votes" on the winner of a presidential debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Enterprising entrepreneurs soon began to exploit the business potential of these new telephone lines. An IP is a business entity that provides services that supplement the plain local and long distance telephone service provided by the LECs and the IXCs. The services provided by an IP are paid for by the telephone caller or subscriber, usually on a pay-per-call basis. Typically, the subscriber dials an IP number having a 900 or a 976 area code, and the charges appear on the subscriber's telephone bill by way of a system known as a Billing and Collection (B&C) system. Typically, services provided by the pay-per-call IPs are in the nature of "audiotex" information supplied in response to voice-mail-style accessing. In addition to taking public-opinion polls, pay-per-call IPs may provide information on a wide variety of subjects such as: psychic hotline readings, sports information, entertainment information, and the like.
A well known problem plaguing the IP industry is the taint associated with calling a 900 number. The 900/976 pay-per-call B&C system has suffered widespread public-image damage through past abusive use by unscrupulous and/or pornography-peddling IPs. Therefore, the Federal Communities Commission (FCC) has mandated that any business or residential subscriber refusing to pay a 900/976 charge cannot have their phone service disconnected, and may order their phone service blocked from initiating calls to these prefixes.
These developments have resulted in problematic availability of certain billing/account information needed to charge callers for delivery of value-added service.
Another result is that Service Providers (SPs) cannot receive a totally nationwide ("ubiquitous") generic connection from any carrier which contains the information that SPs need to process the call during set up, (i.e., in real-time) in order to prevalidate the billing information as a prerequisite to terminating the call as unbillable, or continuing the call as billable and provide a revenue-generating value-added service.
Further, in order to limit services to only those telephone subscribers for whom service fees can be charged to the subscriber's telephone bill, service requests made from a pay phone, a prison, a hospital, a hotel, or other such "non-billable" telephone subscriber must be sent a message that the request cannot be fulfilled. There is a two-digit code that identifies these non-billable telephone facilities which permits call interruption to avoid creating an un-collectible transaction. Thus, billing information and called number information must be delivered to the SP during call processing and in one transaction. The PSTN does not fulfill this requirement because the LECs and IXCs each possess incomplete information which cannot currently be made complete by SPs due to the circuits being separate and therefor unable to transport the needed information to the SPs through the IXC's network.
Another problem that presented itself was that upon examination of possible sub-circuit designs deployable at the discretion of a LEC, it was learned that any sub-circuit design deployed through one LEC within the PSTN will not be ubiquitous throughout the network, i.e., deployment would need to be negotiated with each individual LEC to gain access to all portions of the network. Thus, there is a need for a sub-circuit design for SP use of 555 numbers deployable through just one IXC to gain national access to the PSTN that is also free from any requirement for Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) or other parallel circuit such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,584 to Benyacar et al.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new discrete dialed-number segment and a new value-added B&C signaling system for use only by reputable Service Providers (SP) such as responsible business and professional organizations. These organizations need to provide on-demand access to product/service information by their associates and clients on a "fee-for-service-rendered" basis, with applicable service charges added to the service-recipient's phone bills.
The present invention is the result of ten months of research and development to devise a way to open a new segment of the telephone circuit to an SP sensitive to, and wishing to avoid the "guilt by association" stigma of using 900/976 numbers. The research encompassed examination of all telephone industry systems and tariffs, both existing and planned.
During the research, it was discovered that an industry group called the 555-XXXX Line Number Guidelines Task Group, is in the process of opening the 555-group for number assignments to SP businesses in addition to the traditional 555-1212 use for telephone-number look-up. This task group is preparing a document entitled "555-NXX Assignment Guidelines, Document No. ICCF-XX-XXXX-XXX", of which the most current draft is dated Oct. 29, 1993. Historically, telephone-number look-up services evolved from similar-but-separate functions of the LEC networks. Therefore, the 555-number system lacks nationwide ("ubiquitous") signaling of B&C information from one LEC to another. When 555-1212 calls were processed, generally only a peg count or tally of the calls (no call length) was kept by the local end office, and the tally was not transmitted to the far end. Consequently, it was obvious to the present inventors that any national SP use of the 555-number group in the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) would require a new B&C sub-circuit design. Nationwide deployment of any new B&C sub-circuit design within the PSTN circuit, as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Network Architecture (ONA) could be accomplished only through each and every one of the 1400 LECs, or, conversely, through only one of the 700 IXCs.
AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph Co.) has patented a technology that is referred to as MultiQuest in U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,710. It is for use by 900/976 number service providers at only those locations licensed and equipped to use AT&Ts ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) Primary Rate Interface. A service of MultiQuest, trademarked Vari-A-Bill, is an addition to ISDN capabilities. The Vari-A-Bill system allows the licensee's equipment to signal price changes to the AT&T network over a separate channel while a call to the 900-number is in progress. Five flexible options may be invoked: 1.) Free call. No charge for the entire call. 2.) Flat Charge. The price of the call is fixed at a set fee. 3.) New Rate. The per minute rate can be changed upward and downward. 4.) Premium charge. This would be a flat charge added to the per minute rate. 5.) Premium credit. This refers to a flat amount to be deducted from the total price of the call. The total price would not go below $0.
Heretofore, without ISDN or the teachings found in Benyacar, U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,584, the needed billing account information was only able to be assembled from several disparate sources after the call was completed (too late to deny unbillable services.).